Comments on: Performance Science and Why it’s time has come.

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:17:03 +0000

Thanks Robin.

Every time I talk about Performance Science, the Integrated Approach, the Inter-disciplinary approach and how all performance is a complex, integrated, dynamic thing combining physical, mental, technical, tactical, genetic and cultural factors blended together to perform under pressure and fatigue in competition, I get emails from specialists telling me I am wrong and that I don’t understand.

Maybe I don’t….maybe I don’t.

By: Robin Clarkson

Robin Clarkson — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:30:47 +0000

Hi Wayne

It’s the one thing that’s missing from most people thinking and can be summed up in two words:

Big Picture

Most people do not take into consideration the effects of what they are doing or applying, has on what they want to achieve.

As with anything with life, nothing has or ever works in isolation, so why should sport be different and because you have a degree, doesn’t automatically mean you ask the right questions.

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:13:52 +0000

Thanks James.

I am still waiting for a University to take this challenge seriously and start a PERFORMANCE SCIENCE under grad and post grad program and take the lead in the “revolution”.

Read some of the stuff on the Web about the “reductionist” approach to science and consider its limitations in sport and then look at some of the alternate scientific approaches like “emergence”.

Sooner or later it will sink in but I will be long dead in the cold cold ground when it does – even if I live to a 100!

By: James Marshall

James Marshall — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:36:39 +0000

Hi Wayne,
but it comes down to funding and peer recognition: so it will continue. Also, there is a massive confirmation bias present in academia, with peer reviewed journals often inhibiting new research.

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 02:25:10 +0000

Thanks JP.

To me it is always the issue of the “whole” being greater than the sum of the parts….time we all let go of the reductionist approach to sports science and moved towards the holistic approach.

Thanks,

By: Jeremy Pryce

Jeremy Pryce — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:14:55 +0000

“We should see other people while you are training in Europe” LMAO!!! If that doesn´t shake the bloke, nothing in an Olympic event will. Hahahaha!!

By: Wayne Goldsmith

Wayne Goldsmith — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:08:00 +0000

Thanks Alan.

High performance athletes are like walking, talking, living, breathing performance systems – with everything dependent on everything else.

The reductionist approach just does not apply to applied sports science research.

Thanks,

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:44:41 +0000

Nice post Wayne! The bio-statistician have known this for years.

The few soundly designed project that are also complex enough to address multiple variables, confounders and interactions AND still permit a simple interpretation are a rare find indeed.

And don’t forget that sport science does not deal with normal data distributions either.

Coaches and sport science support teams must understand statistics to help understand fact from fiction.

Cheers!